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LCV Launches $230,000 TV Ad Campaign to Defeat Rep. Tim Holden

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) launched a $230,000 television ad campaign in Pennsylvania targeting Rep. Tim Holden (PA-17) for supporting then-President George W. Bush’s energy plan, which included billions in special tax breaks for Big Oil, while also opposing President Obama’s plan to boost clean energy technologies. The television ad will run on broadcast and cable in the Scranton media market. Given Rep. Holden’s poor environmental record across the board, LCV is also naming him to its 2012 “Dirty Dozen” list. He is just the 2nd candidate named to the list in 2012.

“When it comes to the biggest, most important energy votes of the day, Tim Holden has come down squarely on the side of the Bush-era policies of the past – which means more special tax breaks for Big Oil and more pollution for Pennsylvanians,” said Navin Nayak, LCV senior vice president for campaigns. “Instead of supporting President Obama’s plan to build an American clean energy economy, Tim Holden has repeatedly stood with the same Big Oil companies that carried the day during the Bush administration.”

In the past year, Rep. Holden has supported extreme measures to permanently block the EPA from regulating global warming pollution and block the first-ever limits on mercury pollution from power plants. Last year alone, he earned a dismal score of just 43 percent in LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. Rep. Holden’s lifetime LCV score of 57 percent gives him the 6th worst environmental voting record among current Democrats in the House.

LCV's trademark “Dirty Dozen” program targets candidates for Congress – regardless of party affiliation – who consistently vote against clean energy and conservation and are running in races in which LCV has a serious chance to affect the outcome. Since 1996, 60 percent of the candidates named to the “Dirty Dozen” have been defeated.